Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mementos for recalling and respecting loved ones who have passed.
Description of the Prior Art
There has long been a demand for mementos or keepsakes to allow survivors to feel close to and recall the memories of loved ones, including pets, who are no longer with us. Traditionally, the remains of the deceased were often interned in a human or pet cemetery and that resting place would be visited on a regular basis by the heirs and survivors.
In more recent times, with the lack of space and more modern thinking, cremation of humans and animals alike has become so common place that up to nearly fifty percent of all remains are now being cremated to produce what is referred to as cremains.
Various different devices and methods have been originated for preserving cremation ashes such as in urns, sometimes maintained in the survivor's household or possibly interned at a local cemetery. Other efforts have led to the proposal of devices which would allow the deceased's ashes to be housed in a piece of jewelry or the like. For instance, locket compartments have been proposed which carry a small quantity of cremation ashes, so the ashes can be viewed in their unaltered states. It has also been proposed to encase a small quantity of cremation ashes in molten glass formed into a jewelry piece to be worn, for instance, around the neck or wrist of a loved one.
Lockets for receiving cremains have certain appeal but suffer the shortcoming that the ashes are not exposed for instantaneous and ready viewing by the wearer and can sometimes become dislodged and lost.
Encasement of cremains in glass can provide for convenient display and viewing through the glass itself but suffers the shortcoming that typically the resultant glass piece must be of considerable size and the ashes sometimes have a rather dark, grey, dull appearance which may not be particularly appealing to the viewer.
It is known that cremation to oxidize human remains typically produces a somewhat unattractive grey and dull appearance. This shortcoming has been recognized in U.S. Pat. No. 7,255,743 to VandenBiesen et al. There, the inventor seeks to overcome this shortcoming by extracting carbon from the ashes to be exposed to a high temperature and pressure process to produce a keepsake diamond. While serving to produce a durable and somewhat attractive memento, this process is prohibitively expensive and ends up altering the appearance of the ashes from their natural state, something that is preferred by many survivors.
Conventional jewelry, such as finger rings, necklaces, bracelets, cufflinks, pendants, charms, wrist watches and the like are often worn for aesthetic purposes and provide a ready expedient for mounting cremains, subject to a satisfactory medium available to mount the cremains. The mounting of cremains in a small piece of jewelry, however, presents challenges and has thus left those working in the art with the dilemma of either accepting the commonplace display of the cremains in an urn, embedded in pottery or the like or possibly encased in transparent glass by a molten torch procedure or wearing oversized jewelry to display the cremains in a glass encasement.
It has been proposed to grow a pearl with cremated remains by creating a nucleus containing cremated remains with a transition layer pre-formed in hemispheres and formed from mollusc shell, byronite, calcium carbonate, or suitable glass material. The hemispheres are formed with composite material, two hemispheres bonded together with an adhesive. The resulting nucleus is placed in the mollusc. After the mollusc has deposited nacre to enshroud nucleus, a pearl containing cremated remains is harvested. A method of this type is disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0005835, filed Jul. 9, 2009 by Johnson. This method is extremely expensive and time consuming to carry out, and can only produce limited aesthetic effects.
Other efforts have led to a proposal that a jeweler drill a hole in a gem stone and fill it with cremation ashes to be plugged with a sealant material. A method of this type is shown in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2009/0266108, filed Apr. 29, 2008 by Balme. A method of this type requires use of a gem stone which itself is expensive, and the method requires a considerable degree of expertise to drill and fill in the hole without damage to the gem.
Various types of resins have been proposed to encase documents or provide a protective coating over valuables such as gems. What is needed, however, is a convenient and effective means for entrapping cremains for aesthetic display in a keepsake. It is thus, an objective of the present invention to provide a jewelry piece to display a compact, shaped display of cremains through a transparent medium to thus provide an aesthetically pleasing keepsake which can be more sentimental than just a locket or, for instance, glass encased ashes.